


Saying Goodbye

by The_Mishamigo



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Angst, Death, Gen, Hospitals, Hurt Tony Stark, Major character death - Freeform, Peter Parker Dies, Sad Ending, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-30
Updated: 2021-01-30
Packaged: 2021-03-17 04:01:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,046
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29093901
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mishamigo/pseuds/The_Mishamigo
Summary: Tony’s on vacation when he gets the worst call in his life. How was he ever going to live without Peter Parker by his side?
Relationships: Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Comments: 15
Kudos: 107





	Saying Goodbye

**Author's Note:**

> i tried to write something that wasn’t fluff for the first time in my life. It’s sad::((( (i think)
> 
> I wrote this very quickly so if its bad, I do apologise

The saying ‘ignorance is bliss’ had never, ever, been more relevant than the day Peter Parker died. When it happened, Tony Stark was sipping a margarita in the warm Barcelona sun and he had no idea Peter was even in any pain at all. 

Peter’s body was found at night. The woman who found him saw the red suit poking out from behind some boxes, hidden in the wounding path of a random alleyway. The mask was over the superhero’s face.. She kept it on, to give him the last bit of dignity he could have. 

The first Avenger that found out was Natasha Romanoff. When she picked up the call, called from Peter’s long list of emergency contacts, she broke down in the middle of the living room. Little Peter Parker, the team’s baby, was gone. Permanently... and there was nothing anyone of them could do about it.

Telling the rest of the team, she could barely get the words out. When she finally said it, she saw how Steve’s face fell, how Sam and Bucky couldn’t look her in the eye and how Bruce’s hand flashed green. They all tried to figure out who would tell Tony. 

Before they told the man, who was close enough to be Peter’s father, they went and said goodbye to the youngest Avenger. Steve held his hand as they all cried. 

Peter looked, finally, at peace. His eyes were shut, his arms limp against his hips. They had seen him like this before, but he always had been breathing. He had never been this... quiet... and it was soul-crushing. 

Bruce had to leave the room, throwing up in the near-by bin. He couldn’t believe that perfect, hilarious, innocent, Peter Parker was dead. It wasn’t fair. Gone before any of them were. He listened into the screaming, the harsh crying from his teammates and grabbed his phone. He had to call Tony, he had to let him say goodbye. 

Tony was lounging close to the sea, his head leant back for the sunlight to shine directly onto his arm. He had zero worries which was something that hadn’t happened for a long, long, time. He let his eyes close for just one second. Just when he was about to relax, he woke up to the noise of his phone ringing. 

Rolling his eyes, Tony pressed the decline button from Bruce’s phone call. If it was really that important, he’d call again. He had strict rules to NOT call him when he was on holiday (which he hadn’t had for years). 

When the phone call came through again, Tony groaned. He put the, delicious, drink onto the table next to the lounge chair and grabbed his phone with a scowl. He looked at Pepper, gave her an apologetic look, and walked behind the back of the building. 

Answering the phone, his tone of voice was a lot more aggressive than he intended. But, he needed to get it through to them that he wanted some time alone. It wasn’t supposed to be this hard to get some space.... 

“What?” He said, “What is it Bruce? Because I seem to remember that I’m over in sunny Barcelona, far, far away from the rainy city of New York. In fact, what’s the time over there? Shouldn’t you be asleep, Mr Banner. You do get angry at me for it. Quite hypocritical, if you ask me. Anyway, back to business. I told you to only call if there was the biggest emergency in the world, so... what has happened?” 

All Tony heard across the phone was a chocked sob. He gripped his phone, all sorts of different things coming into his his head. What had happened?

“Bruce?” He called.

Still, the only sound he could hear was crying. Then silence. After a minute of Tony’s heart beating incredibly fast, a voice (that wasn’t Bruce Banner) came on the phone. 

“Tony?” The voice said.

“Steve? Is that you? What’s going on?” He asked, “Do you need me for some urgent repairs or something? Because, to be honest, this radio silence is really stressing me out.”

Steve said nothing either, making Tony’s concern change into anger. He just wanted someone to tell him if he could go back to the beach or not. 

“Look- text me it, or something. Pepper and I have a wonderful day planned and I’m not flying back, because Sam’s broken a wing or Bucky’s arm needs tightening. Get one of the interns to do it, I’m sure they’ll be over the moon,” Tony groaned, pulling a hand over his face. 

Just as Tony’s hand hovered over the hang-up button, Steve said Peter’s name between sobs.

“Peter,” Steve whispered, “It’s Peter, Tony. Peter-,” 

“What has he done now?” Tony said, knowing the kid got a LOT of injuries as Spider-man. 

Hearing Peter’s name, he realised just how much he missed the little Spider. When he got back, he was going to take the kid on a road trip and teach him how to drive. He was going to spend as much time as he could in the lab. Most of all, he was finally going to tell him how much he meant to him. 

So, as Steve sobbed, Tony waited for the soldier to actually let him know what sort of injury he would have to help the kid heal from. Surely it wouldn’t be too bad, the kid always got back up on his feet. 

“He’s dead, Tony.” 

Tony dropped the phone. He heard it smash, but he didn’t care. He ran to Pepper, told her what was happening (he wasn’t sure if she even heard it, but he needed to go), and called one of his suits. He put power into the thrusters, power he had never accessed before. 

It wasn’t true. It couldn’t be. Nope, he refused. Peter wasn’t dead. Not before any of them. He was supposed to change the world. He was going to change it. The brightest young mind Tony had ever met, Peter was Tony’s heir. He was his son. The son who he never told ‘I love you’.

Meanwhile, Pepper cried into her husband’s jacket (the one he left on the side, the same one Peter wore around their tower). She picked up his broken phone, planing to get all the photos from his SD card of Peter. He couldn’t lose those photos, if it was all they had left of their kid. 

The fight was long (but he didn’t even know how long he was in the air), and all Tony could do is stare at the open ground, terrified about having to say goodbye to his son. 

Tony landed in the hospital, rushing past the reception. He saw Bruce and Steve, flying towards them. As soon as he stepped out of the suit, into Peter’s room, he collapsed onto the floor. Moments before he hit his head, Steve helped him up.

“Peter?” Tony whispered, holding onto Peter’s hand. “No,” He said, begging for the kid to come back. His hands fell onto Peter’s cold shoulder’s, looking at his face. “Oh god, no,” He sobbed. “Please wake up. This isn’t a game, Peter. Wake up! Just wake up, please. Pete. I love you. I love you so much. I’m so sorry that I didn’t tell you. I need you, kid. You’re my son, Peter. We can’t lose you. Who will force us to play Mario Kart until 3 in the morning? Who’s going to make us watch Star Wars for the 3rd movie night in a row?” 

Steve’s hand fell to his waist, picking him up. “It’s time to go, Tony. They-they have to take him away, now. You have to say goodbye.” 

Tony pulled himself away from Steve’s grip, hitting back at his chest. “Let me go, you bastard. I’m not leaving him. I’m not saying goodbye, Steve. He’s not dead- he’s okay. He’s just asleep. I can tell. We can’t bury him- he’s afraid of small spaces and when he wakes up... he’ll be terrified. We need to wait for him to wake up, okay? He’s going to wake up.” 

Steve still tried to pull him away, as nurses flocked into the room. Tony sobbed, screaming at the man to put him down. When he finally obliged, Tony rushed in between the nurses to grab Peter’s, far too cold, hand.

“No! Don’t take him! Don’t!” Tony shouted, walking beside them as they rolled the bed. “Don’t! He’s not dead, he’s not!” 

It took Bucky, Steve and Natasha to hold Tony back as the nurses put a sheet over Peter’s body. Tony just watched, tears streaming down his face, as they got further and further away. 

He could remember the last thing Peter said to him. He gave him a hug, telling him to bring back a postcard from Barcelona. That’s all he wanted, he never, ever, asked for more. He was the perfect kid. Now, he was gone. He even joked about coming along.

If Tony knew what he knew now, he would’ve been pushing the kid onto that jet and keeping him there. Far away from anything that could harm him. But it was too late. 

He fell to his knees. He didn’t even care that he was crying onto the hospital floor, where anyone could see him. He looked in his hands, at the mask he pulled from Peter’s bedside. It was all he had left of him. 

Two days later..

Tony sat in his lab, Peter’s mask on his desk. He drank his second bottle of scotch, staring at his plans for the next Spider-man suit they were planning before the..., well, he couldn’t even bare to say it. 

He had just got back from telling Ned that his best friend was dead. Seeing the boy’s face drop, his tears building up just like Tony’s had, was too much. He had to leave. He let the rest of the team talk. 

He looked at the mask, his heart breaking all over again. “Hi Pete,” He whispered, his hands tracing over the patching of the fabric. “I sure do miss you, buddy.” 

The mask said nothing back. Of course it didn’t, it wasn’t Peter. Tony was never going to see that smile ever again. He was never going to see the excitable walk he’d do.. he’d never hear that laugh.

How could someone kill him? All he ever wanted to do was help. He was the best kid in the world. So selfless and intelligent. Why did it have to be him?

“Why couldn’t it have been me?” Tony whispered, grabbing the mask and holding it to his chest. He didn’t let the tears fall onto the mask, he needed to preserve it. He needed it to smell like Peter... or he was going to never remember what he smelt like. 

Peter had lived in the tower since his Aunt passed away months prior to his passing. At least the kid was reunited with his family. In that moment, he prayed for the first time. He prayed that there was an afterlife out there, somewhere where Peter could finally be happy. 

Tony still hadn’t gone in his room yet. He refused to change any of it, scared that the kid could come back and see it all gone. He would think that Tony could move on. In reality, he never would.

A month later...

Everyday that goes past, Tony loses hope that Peter was ever going to come back. Planning the funeral was hard. It was almost impossible. 

Having Rhodey by his side, Tony managed to come up with a tribute that was going to honour the bravest boy that lived. His heart ached at all the photos he had printed. He just wanted to jump into the canvas, back to the memory of the painting. He’d be able to see Peter Parker one more time. 

Going into his room for the first time, Tony took one of his old journals. He read the date and immediately started crying. His first entry was the day they met. 

‘Tony Stark came into my bedroom today! Oh my god, it was crazy! He must think I’m an Avenger now! That’s so awesome, Ned is going to die! When I tell him about Spider-Man, he’ll be the first to know about Tony... for now, I’ll have to keep it a secret’. 

“Even in writing, Peter had the same personality. He was the kindest person you could ever wish to meet. He always, always, put other people in front of his own needs. I miss him,” Tony spoke at the funeral, holding a plush of Spider-man (a joke gift Peter got him for his 50th birthday) close to his chest. “If you never met Peter Parker, I’m so sorry. He was going to be the greatest.”

Tony was silent for a second, listening to how many people were crying. His whole school was there, random citizens (since it got out that Spider-man died and was just a kid called Peter) and the whole SHIELD organisation. A worthy goodbye to a hero. 

Tony continued. “And now he’s gone. I lost my son the day Peter died and I never even told him that I loved him. Please tell the people you love that you do. You never know the day you won’t get a chance.” 

“He loved you too, Mr Stark,” Ned said, unwillingly causing the man to has a flashback to his kid. 

Peter refused to call him Tony. He was too well mannered. It was always ‘Mr Stark’ this or ‘Mr Stark’ that. He did call him dad once, and Tony had never been happier. 

With a straight face, Tony finally acknowledged Ned. He felt bad for getting annoyed. He had just lost his best friend in the world and was trying to comfort someone else. It reminded him of Peter.

“Thanks Ned,” Tony sighed, wiping his tears with a tissue the boy got him. 

“He has left behind a whole lot of upset people, but he’s also the reason that some people are still breathing. He saved a woman’s life the day he died and nobody would ever be able to convince him otherwise, if we had the chance to go back and reverse it. But his legacy? He’s left behind love and positivity and the urge to be a good person. Because of him, I’m going be better. I’m going to be the best person I can. In doing that, I’m honouring Peter and I will honour him for the rest of my life. Peter was my best friend and I don’t know what I’m going to do without him-,” 

Tony took Ned into a hug, letting the boy cry on his shoulder. Tony cried too. He felt guilt for letting himself go in front of Ned, but they were going to all get through this together. 

Natasha was watching a video of Peter scaring Sam and Bucky on her phone, making sure to rewind it every single time she heard his laugh. 

“I miss him,” Tony sobbed onto the floor during their first movie night, since Peter’s death. He cried into his teammates’ arms and stayed like that for the rest of the day.

The movie night was a compilation of Peter’s funniest moments from Karen’s cameras, and videos caught of video surveillance. For a second, Tony imagined seeing Peter sat on the sofa beside him. Listening to the video, he heard the magical sound of the kid’s laughter. 

When Tony went to sleep that night, he dreamt of Peter. The vision told him that the kid was in the afterlife and waiting for him to arrive. Whenever it’s your time, Peter will be there to greet you. For now, you have to live your life. Live it and be happy for as long as you can. He said that you’d be reunited before you know it... 

Peter’s birthday came about. Tony stared at the the keys in his hand, the ones belonging to a car he had brought months ago. He was going to teach the kid to drive in it. But now? It was just a reminder of his loss. He threw them at the wall, not flinching when he knocked a glass of the side. He stared at the glass, an empty feeling in his stomach.

When he came upstairs, the mood in the tower was sombre. Nobody flashed anything close to a smile, all wondering around with tear stained cheeks. He ate Peter’s favourite food, sobbing on the plate. He couldn’t do this. He needed his kid. He needed that boy back in his life.

He went to the kid’s grave, alongside the other Avengers. They sang him happy birthday and spent hours with him, until they had to leave. Tony stayed behind, putting the Spider-man mask on the dirt.

“You died a hero, Pete,” He whispered, tracing the boy’s name on the stone with a delicate finger. “I sometimes wish you were never him, Pete. I wish we met in different circumstances. I wish that you were never bitten by the damn Spider. Most of all, Pete, I wish that I said I loved you when I had the chance. Because you’re gone now and I-I can’t do it,” Tony said, breaking down. 

“I’m so proud of you, Peter,” Tony whispered. He picked up the mask and held it. He looked at the gravestone, taking a deep breath. Turning around, he finally left and walked back to the tower in the pouring rain.

For it will always be raining now that Peter Parker was gone. It could never be sunny again, for Tony Stark, as the world got a lot darker the day Peter died. 

He just knew that he’d never be happy again, because all his happiness died that day.

Tony would tell himself he was going to stop going to the grave, that it was too much. Peter never got the chance to live, so Tony felt like he needed to do it for him. But, it hurt. So every time they ‘spoke’, Tony would try and say goodbye. But it never worked. He always came back.

...He sure was looking forward to the day where he could say hello again.


End file.
